The Musings Of Jeff Chandler

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chrisbrogan

I found this image and site mentioned on TheGlobalGeekPodcast blog and thought it was so hilarious, that I would share it here as well. It’s interesting that I just read a blog post over at ChrisBrogan.com that discussed the overall feeling that social media was nothing but a waste of time. Then, I took a visit to Michael Baileys site and checked out his post, showing off his ability to disconnect himself from MySpace and Facebook.

I smell a battle of all battles brewing within the interwebs. Social vs AntiSocial. Wisdom of crowds vs Wisdom of one. A realization that, just by having an account on all of these services that appear to be a boon for companies is simply not enough. Although you try and try to garner friendships online, nothing compares to a real-world friendship/relationship. Using Twitter and other social outlets becomes a fruitless attempt of being heard as you find out no one is listening because your’re seemingly not important enough.

Chris Brogan has published an interesting article where he reviews his use of Twitter and comes up with a few different classifications of Twitter users.

Out of the different classes of Twitter users that Chris presents, I have determined that I am within the Announcers vs. Conversationalists class.

Announcers vs. Conversationalists

This is a current hammer-target for Eric Rice. He’s railed out about people (including me) using Twitter as a promotion engine. I understand this, insofar as some people do nothing but twitter links to their blog posts, their flickr pictures, and whatever else turns them on. (Note: I will Twitter that I posted this article when I’m done writing it).

But conversationalists know to use a mix. They talk with other Twitter users, using the @ function to make sure people see the threaded conversation. They engage with the flow of people twittering around them, building a social sculpture, and engaging in what Jeff Pulver calls amorphic communications. Conversationalists reach into Twitter and move people back and forth.

In the beginning, Twitter was a social networking tool that I believed I could use as a promotional stepping stone for my blog. I added all sorts of people to my friends list because I knew, most people would end up following me simply because I chose to follow them. After using Twitter for a few months now, I have changed my way of thinking. I still use Twitter as a tool to share postings on my blog that I think are good conversation starters, but I also participate in conversations with those I follow. I’m also beginning to follow only those people that I actually have an interest in.

I’m currently being followed by 54 people while I’m actually following 84 people. I wonder just how many of those that are following me actually give a damn as to what I post on Twitter. I am also starting to wonder if I should delete everyone that I am following and start over from scratch. Now that I have a sense as to the correct way of using Twitter as a social tool, I think I should either start over, or I should fine tune my friends list.

Thank you Chris Brogan for the inspirational post. It’s really made me step back and realize how and why I’m using Twitter.

If you enjoy what I write on this blog and you have an account on Twitter, consider adding me http://twitter.com/jeffr0 I need more social-media, social-web, web2.0 people to converse with. Outside of the Internet, no one has a freaking clue about Web 2.0 or any of the cool stuff going on in the Cyberworld.